Chapter 46 — Bree

Mates.

Rainn has transferred his focus from me back to the others and is now discussing the details of our plan for the next few hours. His voice is firm and commanding, his body exuding control. And even though I’ve closed my mind to him, his mind remains open to me.

And I can sense the hurt behind his façade of determined control.

Mates.

When his father explained we were mates, a part of me leaped with something embarrassingly like joy to know that on a level beyond anything rational and logical, Rainn belonged to me, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t overwhelming.

It doesn’t mean I can’t feel confused that with no input from me, my wolf can tie me to someone else and pull us together until I don’t think that I can live without him.

I love you.

I still hear his voice in my memory, saying those words to me.

But was it really him, or just the forced connection of the wolves inside us?

Now, it all makes sense, the connection I always felt with him, the joy of falling for him even when I never knew for sure if he was drawing me close or pushing me away.

Moonstruck.

Just our wolves pulling us together. And we don’t have a choice.

“Are you okay?”

Rainn’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts. His eyes are cool sapphire, studying me without crossing the boundary I’ve set up between us.

“I’m fine.” I force a smile.

He nods and turns to Emily-Rose. “You can stay here with my dad until we come back.”

“I’m glad to have a research assistant,” Professor Denton says, smiling at Emily-Rose.

She smiles back, then turns a concerned look from Derek to me. “You’re sure all this is gonna turn out okay? What if the other pack…the Cedar Ridge don’t want to stand with you against Hugo and the other dude?”

“Leonidas Gage,” Rainn supplies.

Emily-Rose nods. “That dude.”

The thought has occurred to me. What do I know about the shifter world and shifter rules that have been kept from me all my life? What if the other packs don’t care that Hugo is deceptively isolating an entire pack? What if they don’t care that Leonidas Gage has dreams of genocide against humans?

“They’ll help us,” I assure her. “Once we can prove that Hugo is a murderer, maybe we won’t even have to fight. Hugo and Gage are threats to the other packs. If we can make them see that, then we can get rid of Hugo and deprive Gage of his partnership.”

“Okay.” She still looks worried.

“When are we leaving?” Derek asks. He looks nervous, but determined.

“As soon as it’s dark out,” Rainn replies. His voice lacking most of the usual animosity where Derek is concerned. I steal a peek at his face and his expression is so grim that he hardly looks like Rainn anymore.

I watch from the kitchen window as the sun disappears behind the trees. Out there somewhere, Rainn’s pack will be waiting. The first pack I’ll meet since leaving my own. Having met Caleb, Eli and Rebecca already, a part of me thinks maybe I shouldn’t be nervous, but I am.

It’ll be fine.

Rainn’s voice sounds inside my mind like he actually said the words. When I meet his gaze, he gives me a tight smile. I nod in response, my insides warring with the simultaneous urges to push him out again and put my barriers back in place, or to pull him closer and find comfort in being close to him.

This time, it’s him who puts up the walls, closing himself away from me and giving me no choice but to do the same.

***

It’s fully dark when we reach the forest clearing where Rainn’s pack has assembled. We enter the clearing with me and Rainn in front, his wolf, a full head taller than mine, Caleb, Derek, Rebecca and Eli follow behind.

I knew Rainn’s pack was small, but I’m still surprised to see how few they are, and how young, with only a few wolves older than Rainn and some of them barely more than pups. As we approach, all the movement within the clearing stops, and they all turn to face us, their senses trained on Derek and me, the intruders.

A chestnut wolf appears at the front, her eyes on me. She snarls menacingly, baring sharp fangs. Beside me, Rainn growls a warning at her, and she lowers her head, facing him.

“If she’s who I think she is, why is she here? And who is he? This is our safe space, alpha. Why have you brought them here?”

“Your questions sound almost as if you think I would put our pack at risk, or you don’t trust my judgement, Cherise. Which is it?”

The wolf is silent. She turns a glare in my direction before addressing Rainn again. “I trust you will explain, alpha.”

Rainn lifts his head high, addressing the entire pack. “Bree,” he announces, nodding in my direction, “is not our enemy. She wasn’t spying on me.”

There is a pause.

“Is she from the hidden pack in the unclaimed lands…the one that killed our parents?”

The question comes from a small wolf, barely more than a pup.

“I am from a hidden pack in the unclaimed lands, but I don’t know what happened the night your pack suffered their loss. That’s what we’re trying to find out, and we will, with your help.”

A growl sounds from the back echoed again and again.

“Why should we trust her?” The wolf in front asks. Her head swivels from me to Rainn. “Why should we believe her?”

“Because until recently, she too has been a victim of the tyranny of her alpha, Hugo. He’s the person I suspect of having something to do with what happened to our parents. Until recently, she believed her pack was the last pack on the continent. Just last night, he tried to kill her. There is an entire pack of wolves in the forest who believe they are alone, because this Hugo chooses for them to believe that.”

“Seems very convenient that Hugo is the sole bad guy?”

“What if she’s lying?”

“What if this is a trap and she’ll lead them here?”

“Why do you trust her now, all of a sudden?”

The last question comes from the female wolf. Her head is still lowered, but her posture is proud. I ignore the implication that Rainn had communicated his distrust of me to his entire pack. At the time, I tell myself, he really thought I was his enemy.

“You said you were going to question her, and now you’ve brought her here,” the wolf continues. “Why do you trust her now?”

“Because…” Rainn’s voice isn’t loud, but it is firm and powerful, silencing them all with an authority even Hugo’s brutal methods can’t replicate, “Because,” Rainn repeats. “She is my mate.”